iTunes match not syncing playlists

We're getting pelted by messages today from readers using iTunes Match, Apple's music locker service, who either can no longer find, or no longer sync their playlists from, to, or with iCloud. Apple's System Status isn't currently reporting any problems, which in and of itself seems problematic, given the sudden influx of complaints.

I use iTunes Match but I don't use playlists, though I'm making some now to test out. In the meantime, there's no indication turning iTunes Match off and on again fixes anything, so absent word or a fix from Apple, we'll just keep troubleshooting and see what we can find.

If you're currently having trouble finding or syncing your iTunes Match playlists, let me know in the comments below, and if it starts working again, let me know that too.

Up to a month ago, I could sync any playlist from my Dell laptop to my iphone. I noticed recently that the sync was going thru the motions but not updating/syncing my iphone with changes to my playlists. The crazier thing is albiet the songs are not coming over to my playlist, if i seach new songs that have recently added to my itunes library, they are showing up under the SONGS library on my iphone......hmmmm. Apple is teling me to restore my phone and and itune library and manually add the songs back to library one by one. Huh??!!

I finally fixed this bug with my itunes match and want to share it with everyone. I updated to iOS7 on my iPhone 4 and the playlists were all showing as empty or with only a few songs. Tried pretty much everything - hard resets and turning on/off itunes match. Finally I turned off iTunes Match on both the iTunes on my PC and also on the iPhone. Did a hard reset to the phone. Logged out of both (Apple user ID). Logged back in again. Connected the phone via the USB to the PC and then turned match on again inside iTunes on the PC. And then turned it on again on the iPhone. Bingo!! I can now see all my music again :-)))))))

1. In iTunes, go to a playlist that isn't appearing on your device.
2. Find the songs with a cloud icon appearing next to them.
3. Right click and select "Add to iCloud"
4. Your missing playlist should now show up on your device.

I just signed up for iTunes Match a couple of days ago and noticed that not all my playlists have music. Some do, some don't. I tried the turning it off and then turning it back on but no luck. I checked the playlists in my iTunes but didn't see anything strange. I have 3 iOS devices, iPad 2, work iPhone 5 and personal iPhone 5. They all have different numbers of songs - iPad: 6515, w iPhone: 6508 and personal iPhone: 6480. Not sure what is going on but these numbers are not the total number of songs in my library. If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it. I thought it might have been smart playlists but it isn't limited to that. Another weird thing is the Playlist is empty but all the songs are actually on the phone or in the Song list. Why isn't it in the playlist?

I added music to my library via a CD and the sync icon shows up on my iPod but it doesn't actually sync, so the music form the Cd is not added to my iPod. I've never had a problem with this before today. What do I do?? :(

Having the same problems when I got a new computer. 1) The playlists sync intermittently. 2) There are random duplicates. 3) Tunes I purchased pre new computer are gone and I had to repurchase. 4) Many tunes are apparently damaged files so they cut off 30-60 seconds before the actual end of the song, which is incredibly annoying.

Is stuff on stored on the cloud is what's damaged? I just want them on my iPod touch, I don't have a smartphone. I'm not trying to use Match, I just want my libraries and playlists to match between my computer and iPod.

Just in case some one else is still having issues with this, I had all my playlist but the one I use the most sync. So, after some research I found the cause iTunes Match will only sync playlist that contain only songs and all the songs have to be eligible to sync to the iCloud. So, basically look through your playlist if there is digital books or songs with the cloud icon with a slash in it. It will not sync, I hope this helps

I was able to resolve the issue of playlists created on my mac not appearing on my iOS device (iphone) via iTunes Match. Step 1) On your computer - within iTunes, click 'Store' on the menu bar, then select 'Turn off iTunes Match.' Step 2) Click 'Store' again and 'Turn On iTunes Match' and authorize the computer for Match. Step 3) Go to your iOS device, select 'Settings,' then 'iTunes & App Stores,' toggle 'iTunes Match' to off. Step 4) Toggle 'iTunes Match' to on and click okay to the warning. Step 5) Hop into your music app - at this point it should show a cloud with a status bar....wait for it to finish syncing. At this point all your playlists should be available on your iOS device. Hope that helps :)

I have the same problem a lot of new playlists that I just created on my iTunes are not available to download on my iPhone, I can only listen to them but I can't download them to my iPhone. And the problem is that when you only listen to the playlists without downloading you spend a lot of internet data. If somebody have a solution please just let me know.
regards

Solution: I simply turned off iTunes match on my mobile device (iPhone) and waited a few minutes and then switched it back on. After about 10 minutes, all my playlists were synchronized.
I did not need to delete anything.

Solution: (it worked for me) I deleted everything from Itunes Match (previously I made a full backup in a hard disk) then I made itunes recognize everything again, and voilá, playlist started working perfectly from that moment on. That was one month ago.

Same problem! Rather a relief to find this website as I thought it was just me! Half of my playlists are syncing but not all... and not the one I most want on my iPhone!! Have been using iMatch for several months but have yet to become a fan. Don't think I'll be renewing my subscription when the year is up.

I've been having this problem for a while now. It's getting really annoying. I have everything backing up to iCloud, and so syncing with my computer while plugged in isn't even transferring the playlists.

This has been a problem since my upgrade to Mountain Lion; super lame. It used to be that I could select a playlist to sync to a device and iTunes was smart enough to transfer the songs contained within the playlist.

My only successful work around was to manually add the songs that were contained inside the playlists AND sync the playlists. Now everything works as advertised. Unfortunately, this kind of negates the biggest advantage to playlists. Boo...

Itunes syncs all of my playlists through itunes match fine, but the thing that bugs me the most is that it does not have the tracks in the same order as on my iMac. It's a real pita because I like to have my songs newest first at the top. Anyone have a suggestion on this matter???

I managed to get it to sync only some of the playlists... I think the "error" message for one which did not was something to do with it containing media which could not up load onto the cloud. Of course it has nothing in it which is not on the main list or in other playlists. Latest is no eroor message but no sync....

That's true. I was messing with my iTunes playlists yesterday. I noticed if I created an empty playlist, it would show up on my other Macs, iPhone and iPad without a problem. The issue became when I tried to build a playlist from my Mac containing songs not loaded into iTunes Match/iCloud. It won't allow it - presumably because it won't be able to sync songs that don't exist in the cloud. The only playlists that are synced are those that only contain uploaded songs. One way to fix this is to remove songs that are not uploaded and then it should work. Annoying, because I use my gym playlist (labeled "workout") that contains rare songs that iTunes for some reason thinks are ineligible.

Playlists will not sync and no amount of forcing it will get it to work. Spent a few minutes on the phone this evening with an Apple support rep (Sabrina) and after two separate conversations with supervisors she returned with word that this is a known problem with no workaround and Apple techs are working on it. She advised me to try to sync my iPhone to iTunes every 3 days and to call back to tech support in two weeks if the problem has not been resolved. This is a dealbreaker for me and my iTunes Match subscription; if I don't have my playlists then all I really have is a gigantic playlist the size of my library. Moreover, without playlists my car's audio system doesn't see ANY music on my iPhone (why should it; the music exists in the cloud) and so I cannot play a predetermined selection of music in the car. iTunes Match doesn't "just work."

I have the same problem, but add to it that any album I've added for the past few months is absent on my iPhone. They are albums that I've listened to on the same phone as recent as three days ago but thy aren't available anymore. Still on my primary laptop. Not near my lap top that I use just to stream so I can't check. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?!

I had the same problem last week, I emailed Apple support and got a few formula replies before it escalated to upper level support. But in that time the problem magically cleared up as quickly as it appeared. I had tried to rename a playlist that wasn't updating, and even creating a new playlist with the same songs in it. It didn't work at first, but again, it cleared up in a couple more days. I have not tested it by making a change since then, so if I have the problem again, I will report on this.

Same problem here. I was going for a run this morning and I found that a newly created playlist was not synced. I tried turning off iTunes Match and then turning it on, but it didn't work, and now all my playlists are gone from my iPhone. Very frustrating. And the album artwork is gone too.

I had used smart playlists (ex. sync 1 gb of 4 star or above music I haven't heard in the last 5 days) but ever since wifi sync its been screwy and worse since iTunes Match. I've reset my phone a couple times and turned iTunes match off and on since Match tends to accumulate songs but it never can just automatically download and keep music matching those playlists on my phone. Would love to know if someone knows the fix.

Okay not sure if this can be considered a "fix" but I found that turning iTunes Match Off then back On on your computer adds playlists and artwork back to your iOS device. I made sure to turn iTM off on my iPhone before turning it off on my computer, then turned it back on in iTunes. After adding the computer back and allowing it to finish, I turned it back on on my iPhone (Settings > Music) and voila!

Turned off iTunes Match a few days ago after a restore and when I turned it back on, I noticed that my music was there, but absolutely no album artwork. Funny thing was, in the Album view, no artwork showed but if turned to Cover Flow view, all the artwork was there. I turned it back off, updated iTM on my computer, then turned it back on in my iPhone. Now no album artwork is showing. Sorry this seems a little off topic, but it seemed to be directly related to Playlist issue you're having. Hopefully Apple fixes this soon :/

The same here. I was wondering why a recently created playlist won't sync. So I turned off iTunes Match and then back on (on iPhone and iPad). And now no playlists at all... :-(
Oh yeah, no artworks as well...

I just subscribed to iTunes Match a couple of days ago and my music is already 95% uploaded. So far nor playlists or artwork have synced. I thought I needed to wait until all my music uploads but this seems to be a legitimate issue.

I have had trouble syncing my playlists yesterday. I made a new playlist, but did not sync over to my iPhone. Thought that if i turned off itunes matcand re-enabled it on my iPhone, it would work, but didn't and ALL my playlists arent syncing at all.